5 Questions With ‘Wolf Creek 2’ Director Greg McLean!!

Image Entertainment’s highly anticipated slasher, Wolf Creek 2, arrives on VOD platforms today April 17th, with a theatrical run set for May 16. Brad loved the film and I really dug it as well. It’s a refreshing twist on the 2005 original that feels more fun without sacrificing gore or brutality.

In the film directed by Greg McLean, “Lured by the promise of an Australian holiday, backpackers Rutger, Katarina, and Paul visit the notorious Wolf Creek Crater. Their dream Outback adventure soon becomes a horrific reality when they encounter the site’s most infamous local, the last man any traveler to the region ever wants to meet; Mick Taylor.

I recently sent a few questions to McLean via email and I figured today would be the day to share them! Check it out below!What was it like visiting this territory again after 8 or 9 years away?

Really interesting on lots of levels. Firstly it was great to be able to really expand many of the ideas that were set up and suggested about Mick and his world from the first movie. In many ways this is like The Road Warrior to Mad Max where the first one established a character and a story and in the second film I had the opportunity to really take that character on a much bigger and more in depth adventure in madness. In many ways it was really about getting the script right tonally and once that was right – production was a blast. It was actually a really fun movie to shoot, despite the fact it’s full of genuine terror and intense horror.

This movie feels different tonally than the first. Just as gruesome, but more fun. Was that a conscious choice?

Yes it was. It’s a different world now from when the first movie came out and I’m a very different filmmaker now than I was way back when. Your interests naturally develop creatively there were cinematic ideas and images I was interested in exploring in this film that just meant it would feel, look and sound differently. The other major different was that the first movie worked the way only a first film can – we don’t who the villain is or what’s in store. In a sequel – the audience has all that information – so you have the structure the story knowing and respecting what the audience already knows. So it’s an entirely different and complex game you are playing. In a way you have be “with” Mick because the audience knows him in some way. So with that, and the fact I was very interested in creating a pure suspense film with an interesting structure, the grounds were laid for a different feeling picture.

What’s your creative partnership with John Jarratt like?

It’s very rewarding and a real collaboration. I love working with actors and working with someone like John who just has so much to give as an actor in terms of drawing from a rich well of experience and ideas and creativity just means as a director you can really go anywhere. We also both know the character very well so it’s developing all the time on set, I’m always looking for the spontaneous and unplanned moment where actors just do something off the cuff that becomes a classic look, or line or beat of action. That’s the real magic for me.

What was your favorite kill to design in the film?

So many to choose from! I’d have to say I’m pretty fond of the opening headshot of the cop. That whole sequence, in fact the whole opening sequence, I’m really proud of that as a stand alone set piece. It was really a “refresher” or character prologue – like the Bond films have.

Who is your favorite slasher? Aside from Mick Taylor?

I think Leatherface has always had a special place for me, ever since on a late night at a friends house when I was 14 or so they popped on a little movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It scared the living shit out of me and made a lasting impact. I’d always loved horror movies before that having grown up on Hammer werewolf and vampire movies and Hitchcock thrillers, but that movie shifted something in my brain and started my fascination with fear. So, welcome to my nightmare!